Archive for Liner Notes – Page 2

In our newest recording of music by composer Mark Abel, Time and Distance, GRAMMY®-winning soprano Hila Plitmann brings her full emotional range to “Those Who Loved Medusa,” — a powerful story and evocative musical setting that connects ancient Greek legend with our present day’s #MeToo movement. Watch the new “Those Who Loved Medusa” video by…

In 2001, over the course of three days, we immersed ourselves in the world of Ernest Bloch and recorded all of his works that feature the viola and piano. The preparation and concentration that a recording requires is immense and we were disheartened to hear that the digital audio tapes that were used for this…

Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, Viet Cuong’s music seeks to “leave you breathless” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) by finding ways to introduce new life into time-honored musical ideas. He is a winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, and Theodore Presser Foundation Music Award,…

The Khachaturian Trio was formed in 1999 as Trio Arsika and has toured extensively throughout North, Central, and South America, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Spain, Bulgaria, Malta, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Armenia, Australia, Japan, China, and Lebanon. They have performed in famous concert halls including Vienna’s Musikverein Sall, Leipzig’s…

Classical Music Stars in Malta features several pieces by Maltese composer Alexey Shor, composer in residence at the Malta International Music Festival. His works have been performed around the world. While his Farewell Nocturne and Addio may be wistful and reflective, King Matt the First combines these feelings with lighthearted sections. About this piece the composer…

Born in 1986 in South Korea, pianist Sang-Eil Shin has shown impressive skills, even as a piano student. Shin received a soloist’s diploma and earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he studied with Oleg Maisenberg and others. His teachers have consistently lavished effusive praise…

Hae Joo Hahn, first Korean harpist who has received a title of “Meister in Harp”, has been praised by critics for her deep sentiment and superb technical demonstration in her native South Korea and Europe. Ms. Hahn has performed as a soloist with Seoul Royal Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Symphony Orchestra, Polish Baltic Frederic Chopin Philharmonic…

Within the broad spectrum of chamber music repertoire, pairings of harp and piano are rare. Perhaps that’s because the sometimes subtle differences between the sounds of a piano and a harp in tandem made many composers question the practicality of partnering the two. Yet upon hearing both instruments together, many listeners have been captivated by…

Pre-Order Pre-Order Tchaikovsky wrote the Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62 in one week in August 1887. It was first performed in Paris by cellist Anatoliy Brandukov, with Tchaikovsky playing the piano part. Brandukov also gave the first performance of the piece with orchestra, with Tchaikovsky conducting. The work is dedicated to Brandukov, who had studied with…

Order Now Listen Now Les martyrs grew out of Donizetti’s original three-act, Italian-libretto version Poliuto. Set in ancient Roman-occupied Armenia, its “sacred” theme of early martyrdom of a Christian saint at the hands of the pagan Romans ran afoul of the notoriously touchy Neapolitan censors, and—ultimately—the reigning king. Enraged at the banning of his creation…

Nina Kotova quotes Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavsky, the originator of a system of training and preparing actors, who said that “Cliché and convention are the chains that enslave performers and deprive them of their artistic freedom.” About the music on her new Delos album, Nina Kotova writes: “Although the Variations on a Rococo Theme showcase cellistic…

French tenor, voice teacher, and minor composer Gilbert-Louis Duprez (1806-1896), a native of Paris, is all but unknown to today’s opera lovers. But he was a pivotal figure in the history and development of Romantic-era opera and associated vocal technique in Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century. When he first ventured into…

Five years ago, when I was pregnant with my son Nathaniel, I started writing down vivid memories of my childhood in Odessa, the former Soviet Union, and of immigration to the United States. Gradually, these started to take the shape of a book about a life in music. At that time, I was living in…

Pre-Order Jan Radzynski sets forth on a captivating journey in five movements, featuring a kaleidoscope of national styles. He began his association with Uri Vardi in Israel, where the Vardi family from Hungary and Radzynski’s from Poland first intersected. Meeting once again during graduate studies at the Yale School of Music, their friendship has been…

Pre-Order Before string quartets and wind ensembles flourished in the Classical era, aristocratic households turned to consorts of viols (an early version of string instruments) to enliven their social gatherings. Consorts, or chamber music ensembles, embodied the spirit of musical democracy: No one voice dominated the texture of shared musical utterance. In eighteenth-century Vienna, patrons…